This is the clay my Intern Amy Peseller and I processed last year from Vineland NJ. It salt glazed with a heavy orange peel finish and was wonderful to throw though I only threw small teabowls with it and have reservations about making larger pots from this batch as it felt a little short. We did not screen the clay, choosing to leave the small rocks/stones in the clay giving it the Jersey Shigaraki effect. I wanted to use this clay to find a more honest direction for my work to go but not unlike numerous past attempts, I was grounded by the financial factor. Despite my dreams, the reality is that I have to make a living. This clay will not be relegated to the past but I will use it because I love it and continue to make a living with my other work. This is my argument with Joeseph Campbell when he said, "Follow your bliss!". You can't eat bliss. If you are single and young and mortgage/childless you can sleep on a beach and eat cold pizza and bliss away. I am old, mortgage/childfull, and have a loving companion to which I am indebted to. In my exposure to the all the artists at WheatonArts I have crossed paths with, the most successful(semantics here) were all trust fund babies or at the very least children of Outliers. (Read the Book 'Outliers') I was none of these. I am what I am because of my companion and my own doings. I am not all that I could be but so it goes. It is this wanting to be more that drives me as an artist and tempered only by the fact that I am running out of time. This year will be a turning point for me. My awareness of 'End of Life' issues has peaked and so the mad rush to fill the void begins. It will not, to my dismay, be satiated by Jersey clay.